Network of Services and Supports for Families

Families at greatest risk of entering Georgia’s child protection system often have complex and interrelated problems such as poverty, unemployment, domestic violence, substance abuse and teen pregnancy which increase family stressors, impair family functioning and place children in situations where they may be unsafe. Children have the greatest chance for a safe and stable home environment when their parents and caregivers are knowledgeable of and have access to essential supports and services in their own communities.

Georgia's Promoting Safe and Stable Families program reflects the ongoing commitment of the Division of Family and Children Services to ensuring that families, communities and organizations have access to the highest quality services and resources needed to help children and youth grow into healthy, thriving and contributing members of our society.

Our Mission

Our Goals

To achieve better outcomes for children and families by recruiting, training and sustaining and coordinated network of community-based, family-centered, outcomes-driven organizations.

PSSF Program Categories

Promoting Safe and Stable Families is designed to build capacity between state, local child welfare agencies and community-based family service agencies to ensure that children and their families have access to comprehensive, high quality prevention and intervention services in each of four broad categories: family support, family preservation, time-limited reunification, and adoption promotion.

Family Support services are primarily community-based preventive activities designed to promote parental competencies and behaviors that will increase the ability of families to successfully nurture their children; enable families to use other resources and opportunities available in the community; create supportive networks to enhance child-rearing abilities of parents and help compensate for the increased social isolation and vulnerability of families; and strengthen parental relationships and promote healthy marriages.

Goal: Prevent and reduce the risk of child maltreatment by promoting well-being of entire family

To increase family access to and utilization of informal and formal community supports

Target Population: Families not known to DFCS; families that were screened out, referred for services, assigned to Family Support, or had an unsubstantiated investigation; or families with prior CPS history (closed but referred for follow-up supports/services).

Family Preservation services are provided to families that come to the attention of child welfare because of child abuse or neglect, child or parent behavioral challenges, or serious parent-child conflict so that families at risk or in crisis can be preserved and children safely maintained in their homes when families receive intensive support and therapeutic services to improve family functioning and stability, as an alternative to placement in out-of-home care.

Objective: Improve
family/caregiver/child functioning and maintain children their homes

Target Population: Families that have had DFCS involvement
- Open Family Preservation or Foster Care, or relatives caring for
children who are not their own, to prevent placement of children in foster care.

Time-Limited Reunification services are provided to a child who is removed from home and placed in a foster care setting and to the parents or primary caregiver. These services are available only for 15 months from the date the child enters foster care. Time-limited reunification services facilitate the safe and timely reunification of the child with the family, when that is in the best interest of the child, and help sustain permanency.

Goal: Promote and sustain permanency for children
and their families and to prevent repeat maltreatment

Objective: Improve family functioning and
stability

Target Population: Families whose
children have been removed from their care and are in foster care, or
other temporary placement

Adoption Promotion and PermanencySupport services are designed to encourage more adoptions of children out of the foster care system when adoptions are in the best interests of the children. They include pre- and post- adoption services designed to expedite the adoption process and support families to prevent disruption or dissolution of adoptions. Services are also provided to relatives pursuing guardianship of children. Permanency support services are provided to youth for whom adoption by age 18 is not assured to assist them in the transition to independent living and provide connections to other caring adults.

Goal: Promote and sustain
permanency and community connections for children and families

Objective: To support adoptive
and guardian families and youth in foster care with their transitions

Target Populations: Families of children exiting foster care or
relative care to adoption or guardianship, and
youth transitioning to independent living

Number of Families Served by Program Category

PSSF Service Network

Services are made available in all four program areas through a coordinated network of community-based family serving agencies to:

Prevent abuse and neglect through supportive family services

Prevent the unnecessary separation of children from their families through intensive preservation services.

Minimize the time children remain in foster care by preserving and strengthening relationships through safe and expedient reunification

Promote permanent placements and support life-long family connections for children and youth through adoption promotion and post permanency support services

All Promoting Safe and Stable Families service providers MUST utilize evidence-based practices, strategies or program models with a medium to high relevance to child welfare effective in addressing the needs of the target population and achieving desired outcomes.

Our Families

PSSF typically serves the following types of families:

Families at risk for child welfare involvement and in need of support

Families in crisis needing services to help preserve the family

Families with one or more children in foster or relative care

Families considering adoption or needing support to sustain permanency

Youth or young adults who are homeless, at-risk, or transitioning out of foster care

Nearly 12,000 families, residing in 157 of Georgia's 159 counties, received services from 143 programs in the Georgia PSSF network in FFY2016. More than a third of these families (36%) had no known child welfare involvement at the time of referral.

These families included more than 20,000 children, nearly three-fourths in the care of their biological families or relatives and more than a fourth in foster care benefited from services, 14,000 were in the care of their biological families or relatives. Four percent of the children had an identified developmental disability. Almost half were under the age of six:

45% ages 0-5

35% ages 6-12

19% ages 13-17

1% over 18

These families typically received services for an average of six months, with the length of service ranging from less than one to 23 months.

FFY2016

96%

90%

of families served:
children remained safely
in their homes or
stable placement
at the conclusion of services

of families completing
their individual family
service plans,
met all or most of their
service plan goals

Family Characteristics*

* FFY2016 families where children in the care of biological parent or relative

Our Results

As a result of participating in PSSF Family Support and Family Preservation services...

Most families:

Were able to maintain their children safely in their homes

Identified and accessed other community-based services/supports for themselves and/or the children/youth in their care

Increased their knowledge of child development and parenting skills

Improved their response to inappropriate or maladaptive child behaviors

Most of those participating in healthy relationship and co-parenting services improved their knowledge/skills in communication and conflict resolution.

Summary and Regional Profiles

Each year, summary profiles are compiled on PSSF network activities. These activities are included in the state’s Annual Progress and Services Report (APSR). FFY2016 profiles will be completed and posted in April 2017. Click on the links below for profiles from previous years.